No mountain high enough for Pidcock
RED-HOT TOM SO POSITIVE
TOM PIDCOCK promised he would never get a tattoo – until an Olympic gold medal made him cave in to the modern opiate of body art.
In fairness, the five Olympic rings branded indelibly on his right wrist are a minor concession to parlour needle and ink after Pidcock’s mountain bike triumph in Tokyo last year, just eight weeks after breaking his collarbone.
Britain’s finest all-rounder in the saddle admits he will have to trade audacity for endurance on Grand Tours in the years ahead but not before the Paris 2024 Games.
Pidcock announced himself as a prospective future Tour de France champion with a stunning ride to a maiden stage win on the brutal Alpe d’Huez last month.
He accepts Ineos Grenadiers will place a heavier accent on threeweek road races after a top-20 finish on his Le Tour debut.
But Pidcock, right, goes into tomorrow’s UCI World Mountain
Bike Championships’ blue riband race in the French resort of Les Gets as favourite saying, without arrogance: “If nothing goes wrong, I should win, but I need to make sure nothing goes wrong.”
After dominating Under-23 events in mountain bike, cyclo-cross and on the road, he could go to next month’s Road World Championships in Australia with a chance to win elite rainbow jerseys in all three disciplines in the same calendar year.
Pidcock, who won the world cyclocross title in January, is in form after storming to the European title in Munich, and the lumpy road race course at Wollongong is likely to suit him.
The 23-year-old from Leeds said: “The thing I’ve got used to is only being able to meet expectations. I’ve had to change my mindset going into elite races, because I can’t take winning for granted. In the long run I would expect my outings on a mountain bike to become more limited if I am doing well on Grand Tours – but not for the next few years and not before Paris. I would like to defend my Olympic title before turning my attention to the road full-time.
“I don’t think about it, but I guess it would be a disappointment if I didn’t win this weekend. I haven’t really changed my approach to racing – being favourite is quite a nice position to be in. I guess I have the most to lose but, if everything goes according to plan, leading from the front is the easiest way to win.
“Coming up through the British Cycling ranks, and going through the process, I’ve learned racing is less stressful if other people are not going past you.
“At junior and Under-23 level I could win at will.
“There I could only meet expectations, I couldn’t exceed them.
“But at the Olympics, after breaking my collarbone, that’s where I learned to celebrate, to appreciate, to take time to let my success soak in.
“I always said I would never get a tattoo – but I guess that’s what the Olympics meant to me.
“But in cycling the world championship is the race that motivates me the most.
“The only thing bigger than a world championship is arguably winning the Tour de France.”